majorfrontier points, one with iran and the other with turkmenistan. the militants are rapidly retaking land as the us—led mission withdraws the last of its troops. president ashraf ghani has conceded his security forces are in a critical transition. haitian government officials say they've asked the us to send troops to protect key infrastructure as the country reels from wednesday's assassination of presidentjovenel moise. the white house has declined to confirm the request. the murky circumstances surrounding the killing have triggered political turmoil and unrest in the streets. california residents are bracing for a weekend of record—setting temperatures as the heat continues to build on the west coast. the us national weather service has issued an excessive heat alert, with meteorologists warning some of southern now on bbc news, the media show.

hello. join us in the world of tiktok. if you don't know what it is, well, where have you been? it has more than 100 million users worldwide, including 1a million in the uk — and the rest of the media are now taking note. hollywood studios are casting tiktokers, record labels are snapping up tiktok singers, facebook and youtube have jumped on the short—form bandwagon with features that look strikingly similar. but tiktok is not without its critics — they say it's been used to the spread disinformation and violent content. remember how the trump administration accused tiktok of spying on us on behalf of the chinese government? well, today i'm trying to understand how this newcomer on the block has endeared itself to millions and provoked such fear in others. let me introduce you to my guests. richard waterworth is tiktok�*s boss in europe.

before that, he worked at itv and at youtube. rich, hello. hello. what is the big trend in uk tiktok today? is it the euros, maybe the new series of love island? tell us, tell us. 0h, you've hit the nails on the head. i think it's all about the euros today, england playing this evening. there is a video from the england football team that there's a video from the england football team that has been incredibly popular on tiktok today. if i tell you it's of them messing around in a pool with an inflatable unicorn, i think that gives you an idea ofjust how brilliant and surreal it is. so, it's wonderful to see. but that's been a big thing today. well, i also mentioned love island — so your old bosses at itv have just announced a deal that will let viewers buy things they see on the programme directly through their tv remote control. so, if you have a particular brand of tv, you can buy cosmetics and other items from an on—screen list that changes as different competitors appear. so, is this merging of entertainment and shopping something that tiktok knows all about? should we be fearful

of advertising by stealth, or embrace it? i feel i know what you're going to say. well, i hadn't seen that announcement, but i think it's clearly a trend across media, a law and magazines and media where there's a huge amount of commerce going on through those brands. and it's certainly something that i think it's very interesting and popular online with huge e—commerce brands like asus, which is a big client of tiktok. it's a great way to support a retail business, e—commerce business. so, i think the connection content and e—commerce is really strong. joining us also today is rhiannon williams, tech correspondent for the i newspaper. rhiannon, there are an awful lot of tech companies for you to keep on top of. how much of your day is spent legitimately scrolling through tiktok? legitimately is a very interesting term. i spend more time than i would ever care to admit, it's so compulsive and easy

to lose 45 minutes — you're waiting for a train, passing time, add breaks in between love island is a great example. it's just a very compulsive thumb movement that tinder helped popularise, that single gesture, and you just find yourself doing it again and again, finding yourself immersed in a set of trends. and of course, the way that tiktok's algorithm is geared, the more kind of videos you watch and a certain genre, whether that's comedy, love island, or you're finding the england team, the more of those of present back to you as it learns and grows from your interests. so, i find myself presented with more and more love island memes. oh, it's deliberately moorish. well, last but not least, liza lin, china tech reporter for the wall streetjournal joins us. liza, you're actually joining us from singapore, where it's very late at night, so thank you very much for coming on. i know you've had a very busy news day. what were you reporting on today? there is a different large -

chinese tech company called dd, and it runs and app similar to uber that's got them i into some trouble with the . chinese internet authorities. so, today was like - a mad scramble trying to figure out how... because it's under- investigation now, so today was a mad scramble trying to figure out how- the investigation would hurt its business. - ok, so it's inviting some variety for you. so, back ball, let's go back to tiktok, surely the biggest media success story of the past year. rich waterworth, how helpful was the pandemic in turbo—charging your user base? so, tiktok is coming up for three years since it launched in europe, and we've seen really strong boasts throughout that whole period. it's really true that we were astonished when we went into lockdown in many countries, including the uk last year, we were astonished to see how families took to tiktok as a way of

connecting and having some fun. i think maybe some people will remember the blinding lights dance trend which took over tiktok in around about may last year. it was a huge outpouring. we also saw nurses and doctors on the front line battling covid and supporting patients taking part in tiktok challenges as a way of having a bit of relief from the pressures of that situation. so, it's really been an extraordinary year, of course, more than a year now, and certainly, tiktok has been growing and we hope bringing joy and ability to express themselves creatively. that's what we're all about and that's what we hope we've been able to do. well, you mention doctors and nurses dancing. for a lot of listeners who might not know what tiktok is, they might think it's purely people dancing, mainly teenagers, lip—synching along and other teenagers watching. is that fair?

is that what tiktok is all about, singing and dancing? no, i'm really glad you mentioned that because it sometimes is the perception, but the breadth of content on tiktok now is incredible. we've seen explosions in categories like learning content over the last year, which has been a huge growth area. food and cookery has been an enormous area, and we've seen the tortilla trend, the feta pasta trend. these things have really, i think, become huge parts of the things that we're eating. so, the content is spanning a whole range of categories. music has always been a huge part of the tiktok content, because that's something we see going from strength to strength. just this year in the uk, there have been three major number one singles which have been debuted and discovered by a tiktoker. so, probably, people have heard of nathan evans or seen

the wellerman sea shanty. but then, just very recently, ed sheeran came back into the industry and debuted... played the first... the first time he played his new single, bad habits live, that was on a tiktok livestream which went out globally and overfive and a half million people saw that. so, we're seeing... incredibly broad ranging categories, that's right. rhiannon williams, tech correspondent at the i paper, what does it mean to go viral on tiktok? how famous does it make you? how many views are we really talking about here? it's an interesting question, really, because the way in which the algorithm works, it's not always terribly opaque. you don't really... you don't understand why sometimes certain clips take off and others don't. quite often, it's very common to come across videos with the caption, "please don't let this flop." that's because users wanted to get on the for you page, the section of the tiktok home

page, the best chance of racking up those views. sort of hundreds of thousands of views is metric that any average tiktok user in the uk would be incredibly happy with, that they can easily reach millions and millions of people, depending on what it is and how it captures the zen of... sometimes there doesn't seem to be a rhyme and reason behind why something really takes off. other times, it's fairly obvious. it's linked to an event, a particular meme, world politics, a lot of stuff related to matt hancock going around the last few weeks, tiktok has a very creative output. the intimate sense that the video can engender is really unique in that sense. that's why we're seeing all the other tech companies racing to kind of replicate that sense. we're talking about people who have gone big on tiktok in the western world, but bytedance and tiktok can also have a chinese version,

which i'll attempt to say... laughter. that has the same branding as tiktok — give us a sense of how big a deal influencers in china are. yeah, you know, that's a really good point. - this is how i would describe douyin — it's almost - identical to tiktok, but it functions - by chinese rules. so, douyin is a smash hit in china, just like tiktoki is a smash hit globally. i guess the difference between douyin and tiktok is that - in china, if you are a social media platform, you havel to play by the government's censorship rules. _ so, the content on douyin is a little bit different - from what you see on tiktok, and this is particularly- when you get close to - politically sensitive occasions or, you know, a certain big government event. | so, for example, i'llj give you an example of what happened last week. last week, the chinese - communist party celebrated its 100th year anniversary —

and that's a huge deal- in china, you know, it's one - of those days where the crowds are gathering around - tiananmen square, there's celebrations and parades. and when you open douyinl and flipping through the for you page, which is very similar to the tiktok for you page, - you'll innovatively flip - onto a chinese state media video of a party member or politician speaking - about how proud he is of china. so, i do think that's - what makes douyin stand out from its global sister, or cousin, however. you want to put it. douyin plays by chinese content rules. - so, in many ways, it's very different from the tiktok that everyone sees around the rest of the world. it truly is. rich, let's talk about the most famous feature of tiktok, because it's infamously short —

it started off initially at 15 seconds, now you can go up to 60 seconds, and you've now upped the video links to three minutes. why abandon your usp? well, so we are constantly testing different features. what tiktok is all about is allowing people to express themselves creatively. we have a series of tools and effects, augmented reality, gifts, music and sounds — and video length is one gifs, music and sounds — and video length is one of the parameters that people create around. and so, we're constantly testing and developing that state, and we've worked with creators and asked what it would look like for you to be able to create videos that are over a minute long, over 60 seconds. and the response from creators was incredibly positive, was incredibly positive. they were really excited

about having that opportunity — just in some cases, if you're doing a cooking tutorial, you might want a little more time to be able to demonstrate something. if you are telling a story, we have a lot of comedians or sketch comedy, sometimes people are creating other storytelling — some of those really benefit from having a longer duration. one of my favourite longer videos that's been released recently is actually a history explainer, it's a creator called taylor cassidy, and it's a brilliant video about spies in the american revolution using green screen. and just having that bit of extra time allows that creator to go into a bit more detail in these amazing historical events. so, that's what it's all about for us, is enabling users and creators to be creative. rhiannon, where do you assess that tiktok has had the greatest impact? we're basically spending the whole show talking about it

because of its enormous influence on other parts of the media. yeah, i think it was research released by ofcom a few weeks ago. it found that tiktok's audience in the uk was something like 3 million users, up to 14 million usersjust 12 months later. that means that roughly out of everyone in the uk that has a social media profile, about 21%, one in five people has tiktok. that's a crazy reach, and the influence that it is exercising, like you mentioned the charts, music is being propelled by tiktok, people are picking up like lil nas x, "old town road" because of tiktok — initially didn't do that well, but people do come to it to look for new trends, and that birth new trends. and that births new trends. and it's really creative in a way that youtube helped pioneer, to elevate what would've traditionally been a blogger, pivoting to vlogging. so, it became more about video,

it changes the median. so, that forces people to be creative in a more concise way, like in terms of shorter formats, but also longer ones can play into that. but i think it's so interesting and grabs especially younger people's attention so much because they like the fact that you can just flick through and you are not presented with a grid of videos and you have to choose. it's presented to you, algorithmically tailored to you based on your interests. and that's either a little bit creepy or incredibly useful, depending on how you look at it — may be both. we've been talking a lot about music, but there's also film studios looking now at potential casting of actors on tiktok. i mean, that is a great example of how influential it can be. the way that entire industries which operate fairly traditionally, they're the ones producing this stuff that millions and billions of people around the world see — they're looking to this app specifically to see what is popular, what's

holding people's interests. and it really is driven by a young creators, as well, who are mostly under 24 years of age. so, in that respect, we're seeing a massive shift in what these huge studios and record labels, etc are putting out because it's a more direct, a metric way a more direct, metric way of measuring what younger people who are a very, very lucrative and desirable demographic to tap into are interested in. and that is invaluable to these companies. so, huge growth in tiktok, then, but let's delve deeper into the business side of all of this. liza lin, china tech reporter for the wall streetjournal, we've said tiktok�*s had a strong year, but what has that meant for bytedance, its parent company? can you give us a sense of scale involved here? so, before i go into sense. of scale, i think it might be useful tojust give a bit of- a primer on bytedance itself. bytedance is, iwould say, this hotshot chinese tech unicorn l that's possibly one of the most valuable privately held - companies in the world.

and to give you a sense | of scale, its last funding was valued at 180 billion us dollars, which is quite - an amazing amount - if you think about uber. uber in 2019 was 75- billion, so bytedance is effectively twice that right . now and it's not even listed. bytedance is valuable for a . very big reason — it's great at producing these fun _ and addictive apps like tiktok. the whole show has been - about how addictive tiktok is, but tiktok isn'tjust only addictive app. | it has today's headlines, whichj is a news aggregator, and they have also other social media apps as well. i and currently, they'rel pushing into new areas of growth such as e—commerce and gaming, so all— very lucrative areas. but to give you a sense| of how much bytedance as a parent company-

made last year, they made in revenue 34 billion us dollars, and out of that, it was 19 - billion of the prophet. and how much of that was down to tiktok? bytedance actually didn't breakdown the numbers, break down the numbers, so i am unsure. but i can tell you that tiktok's advertising l revenue is definitely growing. and when we spoke about howl many users they have in the uk right now, in the us, they have a couple million, so you can . imagine that they're a very . lucrative and a very attractive outfit for advertisers. 0k, well, let's go to rich. rich, tiktok videos are almost all user generated, so people are making them for free, they're uploading them. i mentioned at the start of the show how successful you've been at blurring the line between entertainment and shopping, but when you break it down, how does tiktok make money? so, tiktok�*s business model is primarily based on advertising. so, we work with major brands

and a growing large number of small and medium—sized businesses, and they can advertise. on tiktok, we have different formats within the for you feed, which is the main source, but not the only one. so, that's the main business model. and what about the data you collect on users? now, do you sell that? because that is a big criticism of tech companies. you give us a free product, but in return, you're gathering huge amounts of data on us and use that to make money, so are we really working for you? so, the thing that advertisers really value about tiktok is that you can very easily see what people are interested in because people are posting content and responding to content with specific hashtags, specific music, specific content themes. so, it's very, very clear what kind of audience, what kind of

community you're talking to. one of the really popular things that advertisers like to do is to create their own responsive hashtag challenges. so, beats by drake created a responsive hashtag challenge which users but also artists, music artists get involved with. so, ashnikko got involved with that. so, when they do that, the advertiser can very clearly define this is their content. so that's a yes, you are selling our data?- so that's a yes, you are selling our data? we are working _ selling our data? we are working with _ selling our data? we are working with advertisers| selling our data? we are i working with advertisers so they can communicate with users on tiktok, and that very normal online advertising business practice. online advertising business ractice. ~ . ., ~ practice. what about tiktok creators? — practice. what about tiktok creators? these _ practice. what about tiktok creators? these are - practice. what about tiktok creators? these are the - practice. what about tiktok - creators? these are the people who make the actual videos. i'm

presuming the majority of them actually make very, very little money and that you are profiting off their endeavours. what do you say to that? well, tiktok, we _ what do you say to that? well, tiktok, we absolutely - what do you say to that? well, tiktok, we absolutely love - what do you say to that? well, tiktok, we absolutely love our| tiktok, we absolutely love our creators. we're very lucky that they love tiktok. making money for creators is extremely important. it's not the most important. it's not the most important or the only important thing, so it's very important for creators to be able to express themselves. but making money is important. so, we provide tools and services where they can do that. one of thoseis where they can do that. one of those is the creator marketplace, so that is a matchmaking tool where creators can sign up to that and brands can sign up to that and brands can sign up to that and brands can sign up to that. brands can sign in and say they want to do a campaign, and through the creative marketplace, creators will be selected to be part of that advertising campaign with the brand and they would be paid. the brand and they would be aid. ., the brand and they would be aid, ., , ., .,, , the brand and they would be aid. ., , ., , ., paid. how profitable is it for most creators _ paid. how profitable is it for most creators on _ paid. how profitable is it for most creators on your - paid. how profitable is it for -

most creators on your platform? because he does almost on slightly like indentured labour. can you imagine if idv didn't pay for love island, yet still sell the advertising around it?— still sell the advertising around it? a ., around it? as i say, we have series of— around it? as i say, we have series of tools _ around it? as i say, we have series of tools like _ around it? as i say, we have series of tools like the - series of tools like the creator marketplace where creators can make very good money from the content they produce on tiktok. we also launched a programme last year called the creator fund, which was a commitment, three—year commitment to $300 million in europe, i billion globally, which is paying money to creators on the basis of their success of their content. those are two big programmes. we're also working on a lot of other programmes to enable creators to monetise their activity on tiktok. that's the really important things for creators and for us. important things for creators and for us-— and for us. and how do you

monitor — and for us. and how do you monitor what's _ and for us. and how do you monitor what's going - and for us. and how do you monitor what's going on . and for us. and how do you monitor what's going on in | monitor what's going on in tiktok? presumably, almost every single person in the world can a blade of video to tiktok —— can upload. how do you monitor what's in them? we have a trust _ you monitor what's in them? - have a trust and safety team, over 10,000 people globally, and very so sophisticated in technology. the global team is based out of ireland. that combination of technology and human reviewers allows us to moderate and ensure that any content that violates our community guidelines, are very detailed guidelines on what is and is not allowed, those guidelines are published very transparent to the —— very transparent to the —— very transparent leave. anything that violates those guidelines is removed from tiktok. the process. is removed from tiktok. the rocess. . ., is removed from tiktok. the

process-— is removed from tiktok. the rocess. . ., ., , process. liza, china has a very strict moderation _ process. liza, china has a very strict moderation policy. - process. liza, china has a very strict moderation policy. the l strict moderation policy. the content is sensitive there. he mentioned that bytedance runs a parallel version of tiktok and china. ~ .,, parallel version of tiktok and china. m, ., parallel version of tiktok and china. ., ., �* china. most of them don't. i would describe _ china. most of them don't. i would describe the - china. most of them don't. i would describe the trade - china. most of them don't. i would describe the trade fori would describe the trade for westem— would describe the trade for western companies- would describe the trade for western companies this - would describe the trade forl western companies this way. would describe the trade for - western companies this way. for westem— western companies this way. for western social— western companies this way. for western social media _ western companies this way. for western social media intact - western social media intact companies _ western social media intact companies. if— western social media intact companies. if you - western social media intact companies. if you want - western social media intact companies. if you want to i companies. if you want to operate _ companies. if you want to operate in _ companies. if you want to operate in china, - companies. if you want to operate in china, you - companies. if you want to| operate in china, you have companies. if you want to . operate in china, you have to operate — operate in china, you have to operate by— operate in china, you have to operate by chinese _ operate in china, you have to operate by chinese rules, - operate in china, you have to| operate by chinese rules, and that— operate by chinese rules, and that means _ operate by chinese rules, and that means content _ operate by chinese rules, and that means content filtering l operate by chinese rules, andi that means content filtering of political — that means content filtering of political events, _ that means content filtering of political events, sensitive - that means content filtering of political events, sensitive to l political events, sensitive to the chinese _ political events, sensitive to the chinese government. i political events, sensitive to l the chinese government. such political events, sensitive to - the chinese government. such as the chinese government. such as the tiananmen— the chinese government. such as the tiananmen square _ the chinese government. such as the tiananmen square incident. the tiananmen square incident in 1980 — the tiananmen square incident in 1980 the _ the tiananmen square incident in 1980. the us— the tiananmen square incident in 1980. the us has— the tiananmen square incident in 1980. the us has genocide. in 1980. the us has genocide happening _ in 1980. the us has genocide happening there. _ in1980. the us has genocide happening there. in- in1980. the us has genocide happening there. in order- in 1980. the us has genocide happening there. in order toi happening there. in order to operate _ happening there. in order to operate in _ happening there. in order to operate in china, _ happening there. in order to operate in china, you - happening there. in order to operate in china, you have l happening there. in order tol operate in china, you have to play— operate in china, you have to play by— operate in china, you have to play by these _ operate in china, you have to play by these rules. - operate in china, you have to play by these rules. at - operate in china, you have to play by these rules. at some i play by these rules. at some poiht —

play by these rules. at some poiht in _ play by these rules. at some point in the _ play by these rules. at some point in the past, _ play by these rules. at some point in the past, google, i point in the past, google, facehook— point in the past, google, facebook and _ point in the past, google, facebook and twitter- point in the past, google, facebook and twitter said point in the past, google, - facebook and twitter said they wouid — facebook and twitter said they wouid not _ facebook and twitter said they would not play— facebook and twitter said they would not play by _ facebook and twitter said they would not play by these - facebook and twitter said they would not play by these rules, | would not play by these rules, and that's— would not play by these rules, and that's why _ would not play by these rules, and that's why they're - would not play by these rules, and that's why they're out. - would not play by these rules, and that's why they're out. inl and that's why they're out. in effect, — and that's why they're out. in effect, it— and that's why they're out. in effect, it created _ and that's why they're out. in effect, it created a _ and that's why they're out. in effect, it created a bit - and that's why they're out. in effect, it created a bit of - effect, it created a bit of what _ effect, it created a bit of what i _ effect, it created a bit of what i call _ effect, it created a bit of what i call a _ effect, it created a bit of what i call a state, - effect, it created a bit of what i call a state, so i effect, it created a bit of| what i call a state, so for e>

we're doing, and we're very happy to engage constructively with governments to address any and all concerns they have. thank you very much. that's it for today. thanks for all my guests. richard waterworth, liza lin, rhiannon williams. the media show will be back sometime next week. thank you for watching. hello there. it's looking unsettled this weekend as well, but it's not going to be raining all the time everywhere. there will be some places staying dry, but the general theme this weekend is for sunny spells and for scattered showers to develop. again, these will be heavy and thundery, and slow—moving as winds will be light. if you look at the pressure chart for saturday, we've got this weather front across the south, bringing an area of more persistent rain to southern counties.

it will continue its journey eastwards through the morning through the channel islands, southern and southeastern counties of england, then clear away in the afternoon. elsewhere, after a dry start, we'll see those showers developing a little bit further westwards this time, affecting wales, west midlands, northwest england and scotland. again, it will be heavy, slow—moving torrential downpours which could lead to localised flooding. those temperatures range from 19—21 degrees. now, those showers will fade away during saturday evening, and then, overnight, most places will be dry, but rain will start to push into the far west later on, those temperatures in double figures. it's going to be another mild and muggy night for most of us. now, for sunday, a new area of low pressure starts to push in off the atlantic, affecting northern and western areas. it looks like some eastern parts may stay dry altogether with some hazy spells of sunshine. so, most heavy of the showers on sunday will be across more northern parts of the uk, but wales, northern ireland, the southwest of england will start to see areas of more persistent rain moving in. in the east, with that sunshine, we could see

22—23 celsius, and again, it's going to feel quite humid. so, for wimbledon this weekend, saturday, the early rain will clear away to leave something a bit drier into the afternoon. sunday, mainly dry, but i still can't rule out the odd shower there. and for wembley on sunday, certainly it's a dry start, but into the evening, we start to see some of that rain in the west pushing its way eastwards. that's because this area of low pressure will be working its way southwards and eastwards across the country. by monday, this is the position it'll be in. it's going to bring a very unsettled day. most northern and western areas will see sunny spells, some heavy showers. it's england and wales which will see the cloudiest skies and areas of heavy, maybe even thundery rain affecting central and southern areas, which could lead to some issues. the temperatures not quite as high —19—20 celsius will be the high. the heavy, thundery showers clearing away from the south and east. on tuesday and wednesday, by the mid—latter part of the week, high pressure wants to build in, so it'll start turning sunnier, drier, and warmer.

this is bbc news. very good to have you with us. i'm rich preston. our top stories: haiti's call for help as unrest continues following the killing of the president. the government asks the us to send in troops. the taliban are rapidly retaking land across afghanistan as the us—led mission withdraws the last of its troops. if the taliban push for a military solution, the outcome is likely to be a long war. california braces itself for a weekend of record—setting temperatures as the heat continues to rise on the west coast. and novak djokovic books his place in the wimbledon final — will he nowjoin federer and nadal in the 20 majors club?